Amsterdam’s Johan Cruijff ArenA bears the name of the undisputed greatest Dutch footballer of all time and is the home of the city’s world-famous football club Ajax. Arcadis has a long-standing partnership with Johan Cruijff ArenA, having developed the integral design for the original stadium, which was delivered in 1996. Since then, our company has taken part in numerous expansion and renovation projects.
Back in 2010, management decided to transform the stadium into one of the world’s leading examples of sustainability and the use of renewable energy. As part of this effort, Arcadis experts helped design and manage the installation of a massive solar panel array around the entire roof of the stadium. Those solar panels generate around 930,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year, around 10% of the stadium’s yearly electricity. On an annual basis, this prevents an amount of CO2 from the entering the atmosphere that is equivalent to the amount that 180 cars would produce in a year.
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The stadium is also outfitted with breakthrough technology, in the form of a unique battery unit which stores the power generated by the solar panels in the day, so that it can be used in the evening during football matches, concerts or other events. Additionally, the excess power generated at the stadium is used to provide clean energy to other buildings in the vicinity and is also sold on to the city’s electricity grid, making Johan Cruijff ArenA a prime example of how the energy transition can benefit cities and communities.